UK: Johnson’s Adviser Potentially Broke Lockdown Rules

By Staff, Agencies

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Chief Adviser Dominic Cummings’ family trip to Barnard Castle potentially broke Coronavirus lockdown rules and would have led to police telling him to turn around had he been stopped, Durham police have concluded.

A police examination of the facts surrounding Cummings’ time in the north-east, 260 miles from his London home, has said no further action will be taken, with the force saying they will not retrospectively issue fines.

Cummings had vehemently denied any wrongdoing following an investigation by the Guardian and the Daily Mirror, and has received the full backing of Boris Johnson, who has urged politicians and the public to “move on” from the crisis.

But Labor accused Cummings of “[breaking] the rules he helped to write” while the former chief constable of Durham police said the report did not get the prime minister’s chief aide off the hook. Mike Barton said the findings from the force he commanded until last year were clear and damning, adding: “This is not an exoneration.”

Cummings’ 52-mile round trip to the beauty spot of Barnard Castle on 12 April from his family’s Durham farm has been assessed by police as a potential minor breach of health protection regulations. He has said he made the journey with his wife and son to test his eyesight ahead of his drive back to London the following day.

The statement by Durham police said Cummings did not break the law when he drove from London to Durham on 27 March but it made clear that police did not consider whether it breached government guidance to “stay at home”.

The statement said: “Durham constabulary have examined the circumstances surrounding the journey to Barnard Castle [including ANPR [automatic number plate recognition], witness evidence and a review of Mr. Cummings’s press conference on 25 May 2020] and have concluded that there might have been a minor breach of the regulations that would have warranted police intervention. Durham constabulary view this as minor because there was no apparent breach of social distancing.

In their statement Durham police said of Cummings’ decision to drive from London: “Durham constabulary does not consider that by locating himself at his father’s premises, Mr. Cummings committed an offence contrary to regulation 6 of the Health Protection [Coronavirus, Restrictions] [England] Regulations 2020. [We are concerned here with breaches of the regulations, not the general government guidance to ‘stay at home’].”